The Execution of Jesus the Christ: The Medical Cause of Our Lord’s Death During His Illegal Crucifixion

By Mark J. Kubala MD FAANS FACS

For seventy years, we have been taught that Jesus died on the cross from asphyxiation (strangulation) because in the hanging position he was unable to exhale. This theory is not based on sound science. This book explains the medical cause of Jesus’s death and why even Pilate was surprised how soon Jesus had died. The dramatic changes that took place in Jesus’s body from the Last Supper until death are described in layman’s terms. To add to the injustice, Jesus’s condemnation to death was illegal under the Jewish law of his time—a fact supported by a review of the political and religious dynamics.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512773941

Mark J. Kubala MD FAANS FACS

Mark J Kubala, MD, FAANS, FACS, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Texas. He did his neurosurgical training at Baylor University, Houston, and the Mayo Clinic. Since 1966 he has been a private practitioner of neurological surgery in Beaumont, Texas. Dr. Kubala was president of the Texas Medical Association (TMA) in 1995 and was later awarded its Distinguished Physician Service Award. He has served twice as president of the TMA Foundation. He is past president of the Texas Association of Neurological Surgeons and was named Neurosurgeon of the Year for the state of Texas in 2008. He served on the executive committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and on the board of directors of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, who honored him with its Distinguished Service Award. He was a founding member of the National Head and Spinal Cord Injury Prevention Program. For twenty years, Dr. Kubala represented Neurological Surgery in the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates. In 2012, he received the Medal of Valor for distinguished service to the field of medicine, the highest award given by the AMA.

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Copyright © 2017, 2019 Mark J. Kubala, MD, FAANS, FACS.

Illustrations by Stephen Adams

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All Scripture text in this work are taken from the New American Bible, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-7393-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7392-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7394-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017901416

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/03/2021

Contents

Forewords

Introduction

Section One. Historical Background

1. History and Geography of Judea

2. Rulers of Judea during the Time of Jesus

3. The Religious Leaders

4. Jesus’ Ministry

5. The Time Line

Section Two. Chronology of Jesus’ Last Week

6. The Week before Passover: From King to Criminal

7. Thursday Evening—First Day of Unleavened Bread—Jesus’ Passover

8. Thursday Night—The Agony—The Arrest—Caiaphas’ Condemnation

9. Friday Early Morning—The Illegal Trial

10. Friday Late Morning—Crucifixion, the Most Barbaric, Cruel Form of Execution

11. Friday Afternoon—Death

Section Three. Medical Aspects of the Crucifixion—Why Jesus Died So Soon

12. The Agony in the Garden

13. The Scourging at the Pillar

14. The Crowning of the Thorns

15. The Carrying of the Cross

16. The Dying on the Cross

17. Resurrection

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my late wife of fifty-five years, Betty Fertitta Kubala, who despite multiple illnesses and operations resulting in very poor health, always had a positive attitude and an undying love and faith in Jesus Christ that was an inspiration to my family and me.

Forewords

The Execution of Jesus the Christ is not just another book on the medical explanation of the horrendous death of Jesus of Nazareth. With the benefit of both traditional and current biblical scholarship, Dr. Kubala has applied his medical expertise to the paschal mystery of our salvation and has given us a new insight to the cause of the unbelievably cruel and torturous death of Jesus Christ.

Replete with a bibliography of biblical and medical sources, this valuable little book can serve as a spiritual reflection on the enormity of the suffering Jesus endured for our salvation. The medical understanding of his extreme suffering can make us more acutely aware of the dreadful evil of sin, our sin. St. Paul referred to the depth of human degradation caused by sin when he said, Christ, who knew no sin, made himself to be sin, so that in him we might become the very holiness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The gospel testifies to the Roman manner of torture in which Jesus endured humiliation and a brutal beating before he was nailed to the cross. The beating was intended to inflict maximum pain short of death and to satisfy the crowd’s demand for the death of Jesus. Pilate presented him to the crowd, crowned with thorns, which produced severe pain and profuse bleeding, and in a horrendous state of dehumanization, saying, Behold the Man but they would only be satisfied with his death.

The trial ended. Jesus was led away carrying the cross himself (John 19:17).

Medical opinion has varied about the ultimate cause of death. After three hours of hanging on the cross, he was exhausted from lack of sleep and loss of blood, dehydrated, and extremely weak. Asphyxiation seems to be the most common cause of death in crucifixion. However, some believe he died of a ruptured heart. But Dr. Kubala offers convincing medical evidence of a different sort into the ultimate cause of Jesus’ death on the cross. His conclusion accounts for Jesus’ rather quick death after being nailed to the cross, which is verified by the surprised Roman soldiers (John 19:33).

Kubala gives sound medical reasons for his conclusion as to the cause of death, allowing contemplation into both the humanity of Jesus’ love as well as his divine love.

I hope the readers of this detailed medical understanding of the physical and emotional sufferings of Jesus Christ will have greater appreciation for the extent of his love for us. To gaze on the crucified Christ is to see a true icon of love, pure love, where in the words of Isaiah, he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our sins; … by his stripes we were healed (Isaiah 53:5). The crucified Christ, however essential to our redemption, rose and ascended from the dead that we might have eternal newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Kubala’s book will benefit Christian readers during any season, but it has a special relevance during Lent

Most Reverend Joseph A. Fiorenza

Archbishop Emeritus of Galveston-Houston

Past President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Paul in 1 Corinthians says The message of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing, but to us being saved, it is the power of God (1:18). As a critical care physician, I have been interested in the events leading up to the cross. Specifically I have been interested in the medical issues surrounding the death of Jesus. There have been many theories regarding his death including asphyxiation and myocardial infarction. Despite the good intentions of these theories, they all lack the detailed examination of the events leading up to his death that Scripture describes.

In The Execution of Jesus the Christ, Dr. Kubala carefully examines these events documented in Scripture. Because of his vast knowledge of medicine, he is able to analyze the changes that took place in Jesus’ body, as a result of the severe trauma he was subjected to during his Passion and crucifixion, that led to such an early death. He presents a perspective not considered before. Medically his conclusions seem both accurate and astute. He bases his conclusions on sound medical reasoning and is able to add compelling points that only a physician with a vast experience treating critically ill trauma patients could discover.

However, perhaps as important as the conclusion, Dr. Kubala’s detailed evaluation of the events leading up to the cross truly allows one to understand the suffering that Jesus endured that day. As a Christian, I believe it is of extreme importance that I not just believe what my Lord and Savior did for me but also realize the suffering that he had because of my sin. That is indeed the power of the cross. I hope that all readers will better appreciate that power after reading this book.

N. Jeff Alford, MD

Critical Care Specialist, Beaumont, Texas

Introduction

It is estimated that there have been 60,000 books written about the life of Jesus Christ in the last century alone. So why should anyone need, or read, another book about Jesus?

I am a neurosurgeon who for the last forty years has been interested in the medical aspects of crucifixion. I have read many good, informative books written by other physicians, which I will note at the end of this volume. There are certain controversies among writers that I try to draw a logical opinion. However, many of these books are highly technical and use medical vocabulary that most people do not understand. This book is for the nonmedical person. Medically sophisticated people will find the language to be somewhat elementary, for which I apologize. However, my target audience is the reader who is not familiar with medical terminology.

Why should we focus on the cross and crucifixion? St. Paul wrote, We preach Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23); I speak of nothing … but Jesus Christ, and him crucified (2:2); and May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! Through it, the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. When he came to the earth as the Son of Man, he lived like us humans, but he was no ordinary man. As the Son of God he had supernatural powers to heal people, to raise people from the dead, and perform many miracles. He prophesied to his followers three times that as the Son of Man he had to die, and it needed to be an ignominious death to fulfill his mission. As the Son of Man Jesus experienced the same emotions and pain we do when we are severely traumatized. However, his trauma was so severe that it was lethal.

For many years I have been thinking about, studying, and trying to understand what happened to Jesus’ body from the time he was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, through his illegal trial and condemnation to death by Pontius Pilate, to his death from crucifixion. What were the physiologic changes that took place in this healthy thirty-three-year-old male, who had just eaten a Passover meal on Thursday evening and eighteen hours later was dead?

For decades we have been told that Jesus died from asphyxiation (suffocation), from hanging on the cross in the sagging position. Unfortunately, this theory is not based on sound scientific facts. I draw a different conclusion. At the end of this book I will present my thoughts on what happened to Jesus’ body to lead to such a relatively early death from crucifixion.

Studying the cause of Jesus’ death brought up the second question: how could Jesus have been hailed as the Messiah in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, only to be executed five days later? I hope my explanation will answer that for you.

To answer these questions, this book is divided into three sections highlighted below. I have intentionally chosen to present the chronology of Jesus’ last days before the description of the medical aspects so that it may inspire in the reader an uninterrupted contemplation of the sufferings of Jesus.

Historical Background: Chapters 1 through 5 present a background about life in Judea, and in particular Jerusalem, at the time of Jesus Christ. The section starts with a historical review of the southern province of the land of Israel.

Chronology of Jesus’ Last Week: Chapters 6 through 11 discuss the events that led to Jesus’ illegal trial at Roman public law, his condemnation, and his journey to Golgotha.

Medical Aspects of the Crucifixion: Chapters 12 through 16 describe what happened to Jesus’ body from the time of the Last Supper, Thursday evening, until his death the next day, Friday, around 3 p.m. I point out several facts that have apparently not been fully appreciated or written about. I hope that these arguments as to the cause of Jesus’ death will sway the reader from what has previously been taught.

The title of this book, The Execution of Jesus the Christ, was chosen because the term crucifixion has lost much of the original meaning. Crucifixion as a form of execution was forbidden by Emperor Constantine sometime around AD 313. Since we do not see crucifixions today, the word itself may not indicate the unbelievable pain and suffering for the victim it implies. However, we are all familiar with executions, even though in our criminal system they have developed, in the last few decades, into a somewhat more humane form. Further, even today Christians in the Middle East are subjected to torture and